'The Vampire Diaries' recap: Episode 3

The CW

The CW

Lindsey McPherson

Tonight’s episode of "The Vampire Diaries" opens up with something predictable and something surprising. Predictable was Damon drinking (he does at least once if not multiple times each episode). Surprising was seeing Katherine, who has been absent since the start of the season. Sorry to spoil the ending, but we find out she’s in Chicago (not the show’s best cliff hanger).

Most of the episode is spent in Chicago. Klaus takes Stefan there to go see a woman he says is his “favorite witch” about his hybrid problem (Klaus tried to turn a pack of werewolves into hybrids last episode, but they died) and dredge up some old memories.

“I know how much you loved it here, bringing back memories of the old ripper days,” Klaus said to Stefan.

But Stefan said he didn’t remember.

Klaus reminded him: “It was prohibition. Everything was off limits then, which made everything so much fun.”

Then, in the first of many flashbacks to Stefan in 1920s Chicago, we find a girl moaning and making sex noises while Stefan sucks the blood and life out of her. (And if that scene didn’t turn you on, there’s another one later in the episode in which Stefan and his 1920s vampire girlfriend tag-team sucking the blood out of a moaning girl.)

Switch scenes to Elena’s bedroom in Mystic Falls: She rolls over in bed to hear Damon say, “Rise and shine, sleepyhead.” Her reaction was to scream in fright. Mine would have been similar to the aforementioned moaning girls (Ian Somerhalder is so sexy! I’ve been in love with him since he played Boone on "Lost.")

Sorry, I got sidetracked thinking about Somerhalder in my bed. Anywho, Damon tells Elena he knows where Stefan is (he learned this from Katherine calling him at the beginning of the episode).

“Is he OK?" Elena asks, and Damon responds: “Let’s just say he’s not there to meet Oprah.” (Like last episode, they go to try to bring Stefan home, again, and they fail, again. Feeling that this is likely to be a reccurring theme, I’ll spare you the details.)

In Chicago, Stefan finds out he knew Klaus in the 1920s, though he doesn’t remember him. Apparently Stefan was dating Klaus’ sister Rebecca, who is also an original vampire. He and Klaus were friends and even called each other brothers. But when it started raining wooden bullets in their favorite bar, Klaus grabbed Rebecca and tried to bolt.

Before he left, Klaus compelled Stefan to forget Rebecca and him because they were running from someone (we don’t really find out who, though at the end Chicago police show Stefan a sketch of Klaus and Rebecca) and he didn’t want Stefan to slow them down. Rebecca refuses to go with Klaus, and so of course he kills her because she chose Stefan over him.

But as we know from last season with the Elijah incident, once the special sword used to kill originals is removed from the dead body, the vampire comes back to life. So Klaus removes the sword from his sister because his favorite witch tells him he needs Rebecca to contact the original witch. The original witch created the spell that prevented Klaus from becoming a true hybrid, the one he needed to break to build his hybrid army.

Unfortunately, as Klaus and Rebecca were trying to escape the wooden bullet shower, Rebecca dropped her necklace, which is what she uses to contact the original witch. After having already forgotten Rebecca, Stefan picks up the necklace. Skip to scenes of the present and the necklace around Elena’s neck (clearly will play into future episodes). Also, Katherine was in the bar spying as Stefan picked up the necklace (also likely important plot point to future episodes).

At the end of the episode, Klaus restores Stefan’s memories of Rebecca and him. An old flame and an old bff — yeah, those memories might make Stefan forget about Elena, at least for another episode or two.

And no, I didn’t forget about Caroline. While the other vampires were in Chicago, Caroline was stuck in a dungeon in a reinforced-steel containment chair, where vervain (vampires’ kryptonite) is running through the ventilations system. Her dad is there, trying to get her to repress her vampire instincts for blood by trying to get her to associate it with the pain of being burned by the sun. Really, I wish her containment had dragged on another episode or two (it had potential to be a good plot point but failed). But no, Tyler gets Caroline’s mom and they come to her rescue. : (

Other highlights of the episode:

Best Quote: Stefan to Klaus: “If we were such great friends, then why do I only know you as the hybrid dick who sacrificed my girlfriend on an altar fire?”

Most romantic moment: Stefan, with Klaus, returns to his old Chicago apartment, where Damon left Elena while he went to find Stefan. He sees her when he walks into the closet where he used to keep alcohol and a list of his victims, and they lock eyes for several seconds, love and longing written on both of their faces. (I bet he wants to make her moan like the girls in the flashbacks.)

Most disgusting moment: In a 1920s flashback, Stefan cuts a woman’s wrist, let’s her blood pour into a cocktail glass and forces her husband to drink it.

Biggest lie: Stefan says to Elena: “It’s done. That part of my life is done. I don’t want to see you. I don’t want you to be with you. I just want you to go.”

Next week, it looks as if Bonnie returns. With her back, I think all our major characters will be accounted for. Scenes show Stefan running into Katherine, who tells him whatever he’s planning isn’t going to work. He says he has it all under control, but then is shown getting his nipples twisted in what seems like some freak torture method. To find out what happens, read my recap next week.